Grammar of Ornament is a body of papercuts and ceramic plates, completed 2014 that respond to the mid-19th century publication, Grammar of Ornament, by designer, Owen Jones.
The papercuts correspond to, and are numbered according to each of the original thirty-seven propositions which govern the ‘general principles in the arrangement of form and colour in architecture and the decorative arts’ in Jones’ publication. Each proposition provided a starting point for papercuts in which the female figure appears as a protagonist serving to undermine and disrupt the rigidity of the hierarchical system as presented by Jones. A subsequent series of related plates provide a step into the domestic domain rather than the lofty iconography of architecture and grand design.
Remember Me, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, UK – 2017
The Grammar of Ornament; papercuts & ceramics, Women’s Art Collection, University of Cambridge & jaggedart, London, UK – 2014
Banner image: Proposition 04 Interconnections (detail), 63 x 96.5 cm.
Scroll gallery: (1) Proposition 08 Geometry, cut printed & painted papers, 63.5cm x 86 cm; (2) Proposition 19 Field of Squares II, cut printed & painted papers, 57cm x 72.5 cm; (3) Proposition 16 Spring, 61 x 86.4 cm, Special Collections, Manchester Metropolitan University; (4) Proposition 27 Hidden, cut printed & painted papers, 61cm x 85 cm; (5) Proposition 17 Order of Things, cut printed & painted papers, 66 x 103.5 cm; (6) Proposition 32 Flower skirt, cut printed & painted papers, 59.3 x 70 cm.
Photo credit: Daniel Caulfield-Sriklad
